Julian Bond speaking at UCLA in 1973 about the 1972 election.
At
The Nation, Ari Berman, whose new book
Give Us the Ballot was written after years of covering voting rights and voter suppression, has written a tribute to civil rights leader Julian Bond on the occasion of his death—
Honor Julian Bond’s Legacy by Protecting Voting Rights. Here's an excerpt:
The fight for voting rights was always a key cause for Julian Bond over his distinguished life.
In 1965, as communications director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Bond coordinated the group’s media response from Atlanta after SNCC Chairman John Lewis nearly died marching for voting rights on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. Bond made sure the country knew about the atrocities in Selma and finally did something about it.
Later that year, Bond won election to the Georgia House of Representatives, at twenty-five, illustrating the power of the new Voting Rights Act (VRA). After the legislature refused to seat him, for saying he agreed with a SNCC letter denouncing the Vietnam War, Bond appealed to the Supreme Court and won two more elections before the Court unanimously ruled that Bond deserved his seat.
He became one of the most well known politicians in America, but that didn’t stop Bond from continuing the painstaking, unglamorous work of democratizing the South. In the 1970s, he traveled extensively with Lewis on behalf of the Voter Education Project, registering black voters and encouraging them to run for office in forgotten places like Waterproof, Louisiana and Belzoni, Mississippi.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2004—Nebraska GOoPer abandons Bush on war:
The outgoing congressman of Nebraska's 1st CD, Republican Doug Bereuter, is apologizing to constituents for his war vote.
In a dramatic departure from the Bush administration, Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter says he now believes the U.S. military assault on Iraq was unjustified.
"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action," Bereuter wrote in a letter to constituents in the final days of his congressional career.
That's especially true in view of the fact that the attack was initiated "without a broad and engaged international coalition," the 1st District congressman said.
"Knowing now what I know about the reliance on the tenuous or insufficiently corroborated intelligence used to conclude that Saddam maintained a substantial WMD (weapons of mass destruction) arsenal, I believe that launching the pre-emptive military action was not justified."
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show:
David Waldman’s KITM 1/2 off Back-to-School Special!
Greg Dworkin, perhaps sensing the oncoming streaming crash on today’s show, calls in early to discuss his round-up of topics: Will Gop voters decide Trump’s electable. Or, will he be like Biden and Gore? Extreme birthers say 4 candidates must go. Kentucky's Governor trolls Virginia. John Lott poses as women on chat rooms and articles, gets caught twice, keeps his job at Fox. Misunderstood Icons, George Zimmerman and the Confederate Flag, join forces. Also, Buzzfeed and Humanoids! All on the complete podcast - listen here if you think you missed any on the live show!
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